Saturday, August 4, 2007

One sunny day in the 100-acre wood, Pooh Bear decided he wanted to have a party and invite all his friends. Because Easter time was approaching, Pooh thought an Easter egg hunt would be fun too. So, he decided to invite his guests to each bring a little basket in which to put the eggs they found. Pooh decided he would dye the eggs and hide them, but not to hide them so well that his friends could not find them.

Pooh decided he would buy enough eggs for everyone to have at least one, and maybe two or three - but not six- if they were good at finding eggs in the woods. Pooh dyed the eggs all different colors, some red, some blue, some yellow and some green. He even mixed the colors so he could make orange eggs and purple eggs and all sorts of other combinations of colors. He did this because Pooh knew that all his friends liked all the colors and he wanted to make them all as happy as possible.

The more Pooh thought about his party, the happier Pooh got, until he felt his cheeks hurt because he was smiling so much! You see, Pooh really liked parties himself, and he especially liked parties where all his friends could come and have a good time together!

On the day of his party, Pooh carefully took each of his pretty, bright colored eggs and hid them one by one. Some eggs he hid in a clump of grass, some behind a bush, some in the short trees where leafy branches were easy to reach, and a few behind some rocks. He even saved a few eggs for some of his friends who he knew were not very good at finding things like eggs. Pooh thought he could secretly put these extra eggs in their baskets when they were not looking. That way, everyone could have an egg or two or three, and not just those who were very good at finding eggs.

When he was finished hiding the Easter eggs, Pooh waited for his friends to arrive. And, they came one by one, and sometimes two by two, and once three came at one time. Everyone had brought their baskets, and they were all very happy that Pooh had invited them to his party. Pooh was happy too. He couldn't wait to serve them some apple punch and nuts with honey and a bowl of bright red and purple berries he had found in the 100 acre wood. The berries reminded Pooh of some of the eggs he had dyed and hidden for his friends to find.

After all the delicious refreshments had been eaten up, Pooh's friends were so happy they couldn't wait any longer to find the Easter eggs that Pooh had hidden. So, off they went with their baskets, with Pooh following them so he could watch the fun, and maybe even help some of his smaller friends to find their eggs. 'Hurray', 'Yippee', 'Oh boy, I found one' were the things Pooh heard his friends exclaim. Pretty soon, most of the hidden eggs had been found, so Pooh decided to give some clues to his friends where the rest of the eggs might be found. At last, all of Pooh's eggs had been found, and each of his friends had found at least three eggs, enough to fill their baskets. Pooh was so happy that he was almost beside himself. And his friends were all happy too! All but Piglet.

Piglet had wandered off and not found any of Pooh's eggs, and he was crying. Pooh asked Piglet what had happened and why he had not found any of the hidden eggs. Through his tears, Piglet explained that he had found what he thought was an egg, but it was too big and heavy for him to pick up and put in his basket. And besides, Piglet's basket wasn't big enough to put the egg in. So, Piglet was very unhappy and sad. Pooh became sad too, and so did all of his friends.

All at once, Pooh had an idea of how he could make Piglet feel happy, even though he had not found a proper egg. Pooh said to his friends, does anyone have an egg to share with Piglet? And do you know what happened then? Every one of Pooh's friends decided to give Piglet one of his eggs! All different colors, too! There were red ones, blue ones and all the many colors. In fact, there were too many eggs to put into Piglet's basket! Piglet did not know what to do. Should he continue to cry because he hadn't found an egg that would fit into his basket? Or, should he be happy because all Pooh's friends had given him an egg. You see, he couldn't fit all these eggs into his basket either.

Pooh could see that Piglet could not decide whether to laugh or cry, and he still wanted to help Piglet. So, Pooh said, so that all his friends could hear, 'Why don't we count all the eggs and divide them up so that everybody has an equal number? Pooh's friends all thought that was a very good idea, and one that would also make Piglet decide to be happy instead of sad. So they did what Pooh thought would help, and everyone got the same number of eggs, and they were all happy again, especially Piglet. Piglet hugged Pooh and told him what a great party it had been. And, that was what happened one sunny day in 100-acre wood.